This invention is in the field of photo albums and methods of making photo albums and, more particularly, it is in the field of photo albums made by folding a strip of images.
Much photofinishing and printing/reproduction equipment is manufactured to print onto roll-form strips of image bearing media. This aids in productivity and allows orders to be addressed sequentially. Photofinishing orders are typically returned to customers as stacks of 4xc3x976 inch prints or of some other convenient size which have been cut from the roll-form strips after printing. Often customers will then assemble their prints into photo albums using any of a large number of available photo albums designed to accept individual prints. More recently, the concept of providing pictures to customers in the form of pre-printed album pages has been introduced into the marketplace. The advent of digital printing technology has enabled the printing of multiple images on the same page and the sizes of the images selected for printing and layout of the images on a page can be varied almost infinitely for this type of product in accord with the customers needs. A particularly useful form of such an album page is the Kodak Picture Page(copyright), offered by the Eastman Kodak Company, which is produced by first printing images on large size (up to 10 to 14 inches or larger) image bearing media and then folding the media over and adhering it to itself to create a two-sided album leaf page with stiffness and feel appropriate to a high quality photo album. As mentioned, the album pages produced in this way utilize paper larger than the typical roll-form strip and are produced xe2x80x9coff-linexe2x80x9d in separate cutting, folding and sealing operations. Methods of producing such two-sided album pages are disclosed in the series of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,791,692; 5,957,502; and 6,004,061 along with commonly assigned co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 09/452,336 and 09/450,608 to Manico. There remains a need, however, for a convenient means for producing a complete photo album having multiple two-sided folded pages of the type described above and preferably having reinforced front and rear covers, but which utilizes directly the roll-form strips of media which are ordinarily available in a photofinishing operation.
A book assembly, possibly adaptable to the needs of such a photo album, made by accordion-folding a paper strip of printed pages has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,524,993. However, the ""993 patent does not teach the adhering of the accordion folds together to form pages of feel and stiffness appropriate to a photo album. Accordion folded pages which are not adhered together as shown in the ""993 patent are inherently more difficult to bind by the conventional means normally employed for binding books where pages are secured at the base by adhesive. Further, the ""993 patent does not teach a means for creating reinforced front and rear covers for the book.
In answer to the needs identified above, there is provided in accordance with one aspect of the present invention a photo album made from a unitary strip of image bearing media having a plurality of images printed in a pre-determined sequence thereon the plurality of images forming adjacent pairs of images, comprising a plurality of integral pages formed by folding the image media strip between the images into accordion folds so that each of the pairs of adjacent images forms two sides of a page, the accordion folds being adhered together on the inside and a binding holding the pages together, the binding comprising a flap formed integrally at the end of the media strip, the flap being folded around the base of the pages and adhered to the pages.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is also provided a seamless photo album made from a unitary strip of image bearing media having a plurality of images printed in a pre-determined sequence thereon, the plurality of images forming adjacent pairs of images comprising a plurality of integral pages formed by folding the image media strip between the images into accordion folds so that each pair of the adjacent pairs of images forms two sides of a page, the accordion folds being adhered together on the inside, a rear album cover formed from the last accordion fold, a binding for the photo album formed by wrapping the media strip around and adhering to the base of the plurality of pages and a front album cover formed by folding an end of the image media strip over and tucking the end into the photo album and securing.
In accordance with still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a seamless photo album made from a unitary strip of image bearing media having a plurality images printed in a pre-determined sequence thereon, the plurality of images forming adjacent pairs of images comprising a plurality of integral pages formed by folding the image media strip between the pairs of images into accordion folds so that each pair of the images forms two sides of a page, the accordion folds being adhered together on the inside, a rear album cover formed from the last accordion fold, a front album cover formed by wrapping an end of the media strip around the base of the pages, folding the end of the image media strip over and inserting the end into the photo album and a binding for the photo album formed by adhering the end of the media strip to the base of the plurality of pages.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of making a photo album, comprising the steps of obtaining a plurality of images, specifying a desired order of appearance of the images in the photo album, the first image being designated to appear on the photo album""s front cover and the last image being designated to appear on the photo album""s rear cover, printing the plurality of images in the specified order sequentially on the image bearing side of a roll of imaging media, the plurality of images forming adjacent pairs of sequential images, separating the printed images from the roll in a continuous strip of media, folding the media strip between the sequential images into accordion folds so that each of the pairs of sequential images forms two sides of a page of the photo album, first and last the accordion folds forming the front and the rear covers of the photo album respectively, adhering the pair of images forming each the page together on the inside of the accordion folds, reinforcing the front and rear photo album with stiffening sheets and binding the pages together.
In accordance with still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a photo album made from a unitary strip of image bearing media having a plurality of images printed in a pre-determined sequence thereon. The plurality of images forming adjacent pairs of images, comprising a plurality of integral pages formed by folding the image media strip between the images into accordion folds so that each of the pairs of adjacent images forms two sides of a page. The accordion folds being adhered together on the inside and reinforced front and rear album covers formed by folding end sections of the image media strip inside first and last of the accordion folds respectively and adhering the end sections to the accordion folds.
In yet another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of making a photo album, comprising the steps of obtaining a plurality of images, specifying a desired order of appearance of the images in the photo album. The first image being designated to appear on the photo album""s front cover and the last image being designated to appear on the photo album""s rear cover printing the plurality of images in the specified order sequentially on the image bearing side of a roll of imaging media. The plurality of images forming adjacent pairs of sequential images, separating the printed images from the roll in a continuous strip of media folding the media strip between the sequential images into accordion folds so that each of the pair of sequential images form two sides of a page of the photo album. First and last, the accordion folds forming the front and the rear covers of the photo album respectively adhering the pair of images forming each page together on the inside of the accordion folds reinforcing the front and rear photo album with stiffening sheets, securing the pages with a binding clip and binding the pages together.
In accordance with still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of making a photo album, comprising the steps of obtaining a plurality of images specifying a desired order of appearance of the images in the photo album. The first image being designated to appear on the photo album""s front cover and the last image being designated to appear on the photo album""s rear cover printing the plurality of images in the specified order sequentially on the image bearing side of a roll of imaging media. The plurality of images forming adjacent pairs of sequential images separating the printed images from the roll in a continuous strip of media folding the media strip between the sequential images into accordion folds so that each of the pair of sequential images forms two sides of a page of the photo album, first and last the accordion folds forming the front and the rear covers of the photo album respectively adhering the pair of images forming each the page together on the inside of the accordion folds reinforcing the front and rear photo album with stiffening sheets folding a flap of media around the base of the pages and adhering the end to the pages, the flap being formed integrally at an end of the media strip and binding the pages together. These and other aspects, objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood and appreciated from a review of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and appended claims and by reference to the accompanying drawings.